207. Receiving in order to Bestow

I heard on Shabbat, Tevet 13

The people of the world walk on two feet, called “pleasure and pain.” They always chase after the place of pleasure, and always flee the place of suffering. Hence, when one is rewarded with tasting the flavor of Torah and Mitzvot, as it is written, “taste and see that the Lord is good,” then he is chasing the servitude of the Creator. The result of that is that one is always awarded degrees of Torah and Mitzvot, as it is written, “and in His law doth he meditate day and night.”

But how can one restrict one’s mind to one thing? Rather, love and pleasure always tie one’s thoughts so that one’s mind and body are attached to the love and the pleasure, as we see with corporeal love. This is so precisely when one has already been awarded the expansion of the mind, which yields love. And this discernment is called “within reason.” But one should always remember to work by way of above reason, since this is called “faith and bestowal.”

This is not so within reason. At that time, all the organs agree with one’s work because they, too, receive delight and pleasure, and this is why it is called “within reason.”

At such a time one is in a difficult position: it is forbidden to spoil the discernment, as it is a Godly illumination within him, as this is abundance from Above. Instead, one should correct both, meaning the faith and the reason.

And then he needs to arrange it so that everything he has achieved so far, meaning the Torah that he has now achieved and the bounty that he now has, what has this got to do with this? This is only because he had had prior preparation, by assuming the above reason.

This means that through engagement in Dvekut (adhesion), he attached himself at the root, and has thus been awarded reason. This means that the reason he has obtained by way of faith was a true revelation. It follows that he appreciates primarily the above reason, and he also appreciates the reason, that he has now been rewarded with the revelation of His names to extend abundance.

This is why he should now strengthen further through reason, and assume the greatest above reason, as Dvekut in the root occurs primarily through faith, and this is his whole purpose. And this is called “reception,” the reason he extended in order to bestow, by which he can assume faith above reason in the greatest measure, in quantity and quality.